Cold and austere 'tarpaulins'

Press, 11 April 1979, Page 13

Cold and austere 'tarpaulins'

Peter Wolden. Paintings and drawings. Arts Centre galleries 1 and 2. Until April 15. Reviewed by Michael Thomas. Peter Wolden’s white canvas “tarpaulins,” which are suspended from taut ropes in Gallery 1 at the Arts Centre, create a cold and austere atmosphere. Each painting is about two metres high, and consists of an unprimed canvar on which a white rectangle contains smaller rectangles, of equal size outlined in an ordered arrangement. Lightly drawn arrows guide the viewer’s eye from one shape to another, but no clues are given as to the significance of the roughlypainted crosses or the blank rectangles, and the meaning of these very diagrammatic paintings remains a mystery to the spectator. In Gallery 2 Mr Wolden exhibits two small collections of drawings. One

group resembles the paintings, while the other consists of freely drawn figure studies in pencil. These are the liveliest and most personal works in the show, and suggest a direction which it would be exciting to see developed. The artist is expressing himself directly in these candid studies, whereas in the paintings fashionable forms — draped canvases and crosses — camouflage Mr Wolden’s personal imagery.

Mr Wolden came to New Zealand from Britain six years ago after travelling and studying in various parts of the world. He gained a diploma in fine arts from Canterbury University and is now an art teacher at Lincoln High School.

He paints in the evenings and at week-ends in a studio at the Arts Centre, which he shares with two other artists. This exhibition is the second one-man show which he has held in Christchurch.